Autism Spectrum Disorder is a condition that causes challenges with social interaction, communication, and behaviors. It is a developmental disability, meaning it is present from birth and affects a person’s developmental progression with effects that last throughout the lifetime.
About 1 in 44 children were diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) as of 2018.
If you or your child are living with Autism Spectrum Disorder, you are not alone. There is currently no known cure for ASD. However, people with ASD can live a full and successful life with the help of a wide variety of therapies including speech therapy, occupational therapy, and autism counseling. By providing a safe place to explore, recognize, and express emotions, autism counseling can help people with ASD to develop social skills and learn to connect with others. Autism counseling can also be beneficial for the caregivers of those with ASD, especially when adjusting to this new life role.
Despite the abundant research on interventions to improve the lives of those with ASD, only about 70% of children with ASD receive treatment.
And not all of them seek counseling as part of their treatment. Giving those with ASD the opportunity to develop social skills and emotional regulation through autism counseling can make a huge difference in their quality of life, especially their ability to connect with others.
Social skills and emotional regulation do not come naturally to some people with ASD, and that’s okay! That’s all part of what makes you unique. But it is important to have ways to navigate situations or cope with unfavorable outcomes. Social interactions can be stressful and past outcomes may encourage a depressed mood. We will work with you to work through anxiety and depression, and together we can develop more positive social interactions through autism counseling.
We use a combination of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, applied behavioral analysis principles, and insight-oriented therapy to help people with autism manage emotions, behaviors, and social interactions. We will find the combination of autism counseling approaches that best meets your needs.
At Bright View Counseling we use what we like to call “Therapy With A Twist!”. For people with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), sitting still can be very difficult. You have energy to move, so let’s do it! When you work with a Bright View therapist, you will use the power of activity to progress through your therapy. We believe that activity can support a more relaxed, comfortable, and realistic therapy session. During autism counseling, we will take walks, play games, and engage in your interests during our therapy talks.
We strive to meet each individual client where they’re at. For autism counseling, this means we can use your hobbies or interests during the therapy session to connect and engage in meaningful therapy conversations. Over the years, we have found this to be a very comforting environment, especially for children and teens with ASD who may have difficulty engaging with other therapists.
Our therapy services are offered both in-person and virtual, depending on your preferences and needs. We know that parents of children with ASD already have very busy lives and sometimes getting their child into the car to come to a therapy session is just not possible. We try to make our autism counseling as accessible as possible by offering a variety of options including teletherapy. We can engage using virtual walks and virtual games, using the environment and items that our clients are already used to.
Ciera joined Bright View Counseling in February 2022 after receiving extensive training in autism counseling including applied behavior analysis (ABA), social skills, coping skills, emotional regulation, stimming management techniques. She has a background in social work, with degrees from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG) and Johnson C. Smith (JCSU). She has a passion for children, teens, and adults with autism, helping them to work through anxiety, depression, ADHD, stress, and life transitions.
At Bright View Counseling, we know that therapy is not about fixing a problem. Especially when it comes to clients with ASD, we want our clients to know that they are not a problem to be fixed. Our therapy focuses on developing strategies for our clients to adequately express themselves and manage real-life situations to improve their quality of life. All our therapists are dedicated to providing client-centered, holistic, and humanistic therapy.
We have clients of every age group, and our counseling style can be adapted to meet the unique needs of children, teens, or adults. Ideal clients for autism counseling are five years or older. Our areas of focus include anxiety and fear disorders, depression, ADHD, ODD, life stressors and adjustments, behavioral modification, and autism counseling.
We would love to connect with you and discover how we might help. We serve clients throughout the Charlotte, North Carolina, area. We provide high-quality therapy and counseling for a variety of anxiety and fear disorders as well as depression, Autism Spectrum Disorder, ADHD, and more.
